[357] Lord Brougham, not having been included in the second Administration of Lord Melbourne, was unsparing in his criticisms of his old colleagues. As Lord Melbourne once pointed out in reply to one of Brougham’s brilliant attacks, the reasons for excluding Lord Brougham from any Ministry must have been very grave, if measured by the obvious reasons for including him.
[358] George, third Lord Boston (1777–1869).
[359] Frederick, second Lord Boston (1749–1825).
[360] Daughter of the second Earl of Chichester; married in October 1837 to the Rev. and Hon. L. J. Barrington.
[361] Lady Melbourne was a daughter of Sir Ralph Milbanke, and William Lamb was her favourite son. When Peniston, her eldest son, died, she encouraged William to devote himself to politics and to abandon the Bar.
[362] The Canadian question was one of the most difficult of the early years of the Queen’s reign. Upper and Lower Canada were totally dissimilar in race, tradition, and natural position. Lower Canada was peopled mainly by French Roman Catholics, Upper Canada by Scottish Protestants, and the mode of Government in both was as cumbrous and inappropriate as it could well be, and afforded unquestionable ground for grievance on the part of the inhabitants. In 1836 a rebellion broke out in the Lower Province headed by Papineau, who had been Speaker of the Assembly. This was followed by an insurrection in the Upper Province, which was quelled in a striking and almost quixotic manner by Sir Francis Head, the Governor, who, dismissing all his regular troops to the Lower Province, trusted to the people to put down the malcontents, and succeeded. Lord Durham was sent out in 1838 as High Commissioner and Governor-General. His report on the proper method of administering the Colony is historical, and ultimately formed the basis of settlement. His acts were not approved by the Whig Government and were annulled by them. He anticipated his recall by resigning and coming home before the end of 1838.
[363] Charles, second son of Lord Grey, the ex-Premier. He was Equerry to the Queen, and had a year or two earlier defeated Disraeli at the High Wycombe election. He became Private Secretary to Prince Albert and later to the Queen. He spent all the years of his life in the Queen’s service, and was always helpful, wise, and unbiassed in the advice he tendered her. The present Earl Grey, Lady Victoria Dawnay, Lady Antrim, and Lady Minto are his surviving children. Many good judges considered his abilities of a higher order than those of his father.
[364] Lady Caroline Ponsonby, daughter of the third Earl of Bessborough, a lady of eccentric mind and habits. She was thrown off her mental and moral balance by her acquaintance with Lord Byron, not perhaps so surprising as the fact that she never recovered either even after Byron’s death.
[365] Lord Melbourne’s brother, afterwards Lord Beauvale, Ambassador Extraordinary at Vienna. As a diplomatist he was irreproachable, handsome, agreeable, and adroit. In private life he was not altogether sans reproche. Without his brother William’s literary acquirements, and with less sarcasm and pungent wit, he yet had a vigorous understanding, much information, and no little capacity for affairs. At sixty years of age, and in broken health, he married a very young lady, the daughter of Count Maltzahn, the Prussian Minister at Vienna.
[366] Henry Richard, third Lord Holland of the 1762 creation, was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Under the auspices of his wife, Holland House, Kensington, was for many years the Zoar of weary Whig politicians. See ante, p. 101, note.